UMass launches diabetes study

Monday, February 05, 2007

By HOLLY ANGELO

hangelo@repub.com

AMHERST - A $2.24 million, five-year study at the University
of Massachusetts-Amherst will include the participation of
364 local women to study the effects of exercise on pregnant
women with a history of gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes is a condition triggered by pregnancy
that puts women at higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes
later in life. The grant money comes from the National
Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Diabetes
and Digestive Kidney Diseases. It was awarded to Lisa E.
Chasan-Taber, associate professor of epidemiology at
UMass-Amherst.

"We know exercise protects women in pregnancy against
a number of disorders," lead investigator Chasan-Taber
said earlier this week.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
currently recommends pregnant women participate in 30
minutes of moderate-intensity exercise at least five days a
week.

This will be the first randomized trial done to study the
effects of exercise on pregnant women with a history of
gestational diabetes, Chasan-Taber said. The study will
focus on the benefits of walking. Half the women will
receive extra information on exercise, while the other half
will receive information on nutrition, but no extra
information on exercise.

"We'll follow them through most of their
pregnancy," Chasan-Taber said. "We'll compare
their rates of gestational diabetes."

UMass will enroll 364 prenatal women from Baystate Medical
Center in Springfield to participate in the study. Dr. Glenn
R. Markenson, director of obstetrics and director of
maternal fetal medicine high risk obstetrics at Baystate,
will review the women's charts and make sure it's
safe for them to participate in the study.

"We're seeing more diabetes in pregnancy,"
Markenson said last week.

Markenson said the main reasons for the increase are obesity and women having babies later in life. He said exercise seems to work in the nonpregnant population to control diabetes, so this study will help prove exercise can help pregnant women avoid the disease....